***A Fun Day With Ella***

Today Ella and I had a blast together. We got up early, as usual, had breakfast, got ready and then played pretty hard with some shapes and other objects, she makes it fun. A couple hours later we headed out to meet my Dad for lunch at Bob Evan's. I ordered this fried chicken thing and it was completely hollow!!! It was the strangest thing. Our waitress was a wack-job, totally out in left field, so she was really of no help the entire meal. Once we were through eating Ella and I headed home. (thus completing trip #1 into town)

When we got home, Ella went down for a nap during which I took an "oh so relaxing" bath and thought about what I was going to make for dinner. Once Ella was awake and ready to go, we loaded back up into the car and headed for the grocery store. On the way there we passed this little consignment shop called "A,B,C'S". It was upon seeing this that I decided we must stop and check it out on the way back home. We got to the grocery store, did our shopping, dropped off a couple rolls of film and headed to "A,B,C'S". Immediately I could tell that it was going to be a nice place. There were swings and saucers outside that were practically brand new and priced to sell. If you read my previous post about my "ebay addiction" phase that I've been going through again, you'll know that I've been looking for cute winter clothing. I had seen a Children's Place sweater that I absolutely had to have, but the bidding went OUT OF CONTROL at the end and was going for way more than I wanted to pay...WELL, my lucky day, I found the exact sweater for $4.99!!!! SOLD and we were out the door. I will be going back there again. (trip to town #2)

As soon as we stepped in the door I began making dinner, chicken and rice one of my favorites! Ella was great playing by herself and did a great job of stearing clear of the kitchen. We demolished our dinner, cleaned up and headed out the door once again to get ice cream from Dairy Queen and then to see Great Grampy Mac and Great Granny Ruby. Once we got there, Ella went CRAZY, running all over, climbing on everything, saying everything that popped in her little head. She would run back and forth from their kitchen to their living room squealing and laughing. It was so much fun! Until I smelled an unpleasant odor coming from her buns! lol Then we were off to Papa's and Nana's to change her pants, play for a little bit and then head for home. (trip to town #3)

Ok, so maybe for some of you a trip to town consists of hopping in your car, driving two blocks and you're there. For me, it takes a good 10 minutes just to get into town. This means that I spent an hour in my car today just counting the 10 minutes it took to get from point A to point B not counting anything in between. That's a stinkin' lot of driving, but it was totally worth it!!

Now tomorrow is another day that we have got nothing planned. However, I'd rather not spend as much time traveling. If you're going to be in the area, give me a shout and we'll do lunch! =)
More to come tomorrow! Loves

Isn't she just the sweetest thing ever? She had just woke up from her nap to find her "Aunt B", my sister Amber, was visiting. Ella loves all of her Aunties and loves having them over to visit. If you look closely enough at her little chin, you'll notice a big red spot. That would be from her tripping and falling over when she was sick and getting a rug-burn on her chin. She is extremely bright, but falls over quite a bit...lol Don't all kids? Luckily it was healed up by yesterday. She had gotten her pictures taken at the Woodland Mall in Grand Rapids...We'll talk more about that later!! =) Loves!!!! Lacey

**Old Addictions Die Hard**

First off I want to apologize for not having kept up on my blog. I do realize that it has been almost an entire month since I last wrote and that is bad! =) It's not even like I've been super crazy busy or anything...HOWEVER, I have had other things to do while online. My addiction for bidding on e-bay has returned. I've been buying Ella coats and clothing and have been searching for anything and everything else. Doll Houses, toys, books, bikes you name it I've looked for it. Once we get within a couple months stretch of Christmas, I go bonkers. I haven't started looking for stuff for jonathan because honestly...I have no clue what the boy wants. He definitely isn't in NEED for anything...He's got more "stuff" than any girl I've ever met!! So I have been absolutely glued to the computer....but have not had "time" to update my dear sweet blog. My apologizes to the few of you who check this out every once in a while.

One great thing that happened this last week was Jonathan and My 2 year anniversary!!! I can not believe it! It seems like we just got married. Jonathan thinks it's pretty cool that now when someone asks how long we've been married he can simply reply, "It's been a couple years". lol

A couple weeks ago our little Ella-bean got an ear infection and was running a fever for a couple of days. This in turn made her fussy and clingy and irritable, not to mention made me CRAZY. It was rather trying on my patience to be honest. However, we got through it just fine and realized that when she's not sick she is so much fun to be around and are so thankful for that little reminder. You should never take a happy baby for granted!

One of my best friends, Amy, came and stayed with me one night. The next day we went to this garage sale that was being held inside an old office appliance store. IT WAS AWESOME!!! The sale was put on by 4 or 5 different individuals. One of which owned a specialty store in Indiana that she had closed and had TONS of stuff to sell. For those of you who have been to persnickety here in Cadillac, the stuff was a lot like that! Cool picture frames and decor...it was awesome. The best part? It was the last day of the sale so everything was HALF OFF....I got a crud-load of stuff for $13 bucks....then on the way home, I got a brand new bread maker for $6.00's I WAS PUMPED!! I then came home to find a sweet new chair chilling in our living room. A friend of my dad's had gotten new furniture and we got the old new chair...lol What a great day!

So I guess I have been pretty busy. But that still is no excuse for me not writing! I will continue to do the very best that I can to keep you all from being utterly lost and confused without my "oh so important" blog...lol So kidding! But honestly, for those of you who do read this...Thanks!

Will write again soon...(when I have something worth writing!!) Lacey

***The Devastation***

Yesterday, I watched the latest news on Hurricane Katrina and the mess it has made of not only the houses, businesses and landscape, but also the mess it has made out of the people who are from the areas that it demolished. My heart cries out for those families. I don't usually get teary over the news, but my gosh, I wanted to just start bawling! My heart literally ached for those people. But ya know what? We are the children of a Father who loves and cares for us and cares for all of those people. They will rebuild their homes, their stores, their lives...and hopefully they will flood to the Lord as he is our strength in times of trouble. He is the rock that we can stand firm on and no flood, no storm, no hurricane can ever take that from us. My prayer for those people is that they begin to see that they can shout out to the Lord and he will hear them. This storm was not caused by him. Many people have and will blame him, but the truth his, he restores that which was broken, he wouldn't break it just to fix it. Ok, I know this sounds like I'm preaching to ya....but the truth is....this sort of thing just gets me fired up for God.
I highly recommend that you purchase the CD "God He Reigns" by Hillsong...the song "Yours is the Kingdom" is great!! made me feel like I was back in Oklahoma in church just praising God all out! Man I really needed that...anywho, I know this was a random blog...but it's just what all is on my mind today. Alright, tomorrow will be full of exciting things I'm sure!!! =) Loves! -Lacey

Isaiah 53:4-6:
4 Surely he took up our infirmaties and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.